The US and Australia signed a deal on critical minerals for projects worth up to $8.5 billion. The deal is expected to help the US reduce its dependence on China, which dominates the global rare earth supply chain. An ETF (REMX) that targets these commodities is trading near a 1-1/2 year high:

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Monday’s outage at Amazon Web Services highlights economy’s fragility and dependence on cloud computing. The technical issues crippled digital services and web site for some of the world’s biggest companies.

Mortgage rates are expected to remain at 6%-plus over the next several years, according to projections from economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association. “As we move over the next couple of years, we think it’s more likely that long [term] rates are going to go up rather than down, given the fiscal pressures on the economy,” said the group’s chief economist Mike Fratantoni.

The “Magnificent 7” companies are expected to report year-over-year earnings growth of 14.9% for the third quarter, reports FactSet. Excluding these firms, the combination of actual and estimated results point to an earnings growth rate for the remaining 493 companies in the S&P 500 at 6.7% for Q3 2025.

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